Hello Wikimedia community,
It’s our delight to inform you that we received a US$3,015,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation [1] to expedite development of structured data on Commons. The grant will be given over the course of three years, and will allow us to develop a team, in collaboration with the Wikidata team at Wikimedia Deutschland, that can focus on integrating the structured data features of Wikidata into describing the media files on Commons.
This work will allow us to expedite features both on the Wikidata development roadmap, and in other products supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. The grant also provides funding to ensure that movement stakeholders, like Wiki Loves Monuments and GLAM-Wiki program leaders, and external partners who contribute heavily to Commons, such as GLAMs, can be involved in the development.
We have drafted a high level overview of the grant and its scope, available on Commons [2]. A blog post about the grant is also available on the Wikimedia blog [3].
We are currently in the process of identifying the technical lead for the project. If you have questions, Alex Stinson, the Foundation’s GLAM-Wiki strategist, will be leading the community engagement and communications for the project until we hire a community liaison as part of the grant. Stay tuned for more details about the project in the coming months.
We’re excited to be able to support this project, and look forward to your participation in its development.
Thank you,
Wes Moran and Maggie Dennis